Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) came out swinging against Republicans in Congress on Saturday as she addressed the unemployed during a forum in Inglewood.

The event occurred a day after new statistics were released showing that California’s jobless rate last month went up to 12%, from 11.8%. California now has the second-highest rate of unemployment in the nation, trailing only Nevada at 12.9%, and its jobless rate is well above the U.S. average of 9.1%.

Waters vowed to push Congress to focus on creating more jobs. “I’m not afraid of anybody,” said Waters. “This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the ‘tea party’ can go straight to hell.”

More than 1,000 people attended “Kitchen Table Summit,” which was designed to give the jobless an opportunity to vent to elected officials and share their struggles about finding a job.

The House ethics committee is poised to pay a half-million dollars by year’s end to resolve the mess that remains of its three-year probe of Rep. Maxine Waters.

An outside counsel and private law firm will sort out how to handle the most substantive case on the committee’s plate this session, as the panel tackles more modest matters. Waters, a powerful California Democrat, and a former senior staffer on the committee have separately questioned the integrity of the panel’s investigation.

…Waters’s scheduled ethics trial in November 2010 was postponed amid the disputes. Both the staff director and the two investigators left the committee, with the case unresolved.

The new outside review of the Waters case is already underway and being led by respected defense lawyer Billy Martin. It aims to determine whether the committee so tainted the investigation that it must drop the charges. If Martin finds the case can proceed, and the ethics committee agrees, he and associates at his firm of Dorsey & Whitney would lead the revived probe.

When the committee’s new staff director, Dan Schwager, arrived in May he immediately reviewed the handling of the Waters case. In a private meeting the week of June 28, the committee agreed with Schwager’s proposal that the panel should hire outside counsel. Chief among the reasons was a lack of public trust in the process and Waters’s accusations that the committee had broken its own rules. Schwager, known as an even-handed counsel to the Senate ethics committee, has been well-received by committee members.

The committee announced Martin’s hiring July 20, and acknowledged that its conduct was the subject of “serious allegations.”

“The outside counsel’s review will . . . help assure all respondents and the entire House community of the integrity of the committee’s process for all matters,” the statement said.

Under his contract, Martin needs committee approval to release any information about the Waters probe and finish his initial review by Jan. 2.

So what, besides cronyism of color, do Water and her Congressional Black Caucus have in mind to reduce dismal job numbers for unemployed black Americans?

“We’re doing a lot on job creation in our community,” said Waters. “For example, the congressional black caucus has come up with 40 pieces of legislation to deal with various aspects of creating jobs. We support an infrastructure bank that the president is alluding to.”

WATERS: The only thing that I think the President should be aware of is people want him to fight. They said, don’t back down from the Tea Party. Don’t let them have their way.

EDWARDS: Waters says several caucus bills targeting the black unemployment rate are stuck in the Republican-controlled House. Georgia Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights icon, says marches may not be the answer this time, but something has to give.

Representative JOHN LEWIS: As representatives of people, we have a moral obligation to stand up, to speak up, to speak out and do what I call get in the way. Sometimes, you have to make some noise. You have to disturb the order of things.